NATO must set limits for Putin

The West must not be fooled, because then the next stage of provocations reliably follows. And the danger of war would increase.

V Or almost exactly ten years, on the 30. In September 2015, Russia launched its brutal military intervention in Syria to rescue the Assad dictatorship. On the 24. In November 2015, a Russian bomber crossed the airspace of NATO member Turkey for 17 seconds – and was shot down.

Russia scolded terribly and imposed sanctions, but it didn’t last long, and after some muscle games and courtesies, the two autocrats Erdogan and Putin agreed to divide their spheres of influence in Syria. And to this day, Russia takes Turkey more seriously than any Western country.

So why is NATO not responding when Russia sends spy drones to Poland, directs combat drones via Romania, and most recently even lets three fighter jets fly through Estonia’s airspace for twelve minutes without communication? Turkey has done it: you have to get respect. Clearly, the Russian jets were, as they say, “escorted” from Estonian airspace. And you don’t know how Russia would react if you let action follow a Russian provocation and not just words. But you know how Russia reacts when you stick with words: with the next provocation, always a small step higher.

The more idle NATO remains against advances from Russia, the more it encourages Russian aggression. Recently, not even Russian drones were attacked via Romania, unlike those about Poland. They were just on their way to Ukraine, and for them you don’t lift a finger to the trigger. A poverty testament.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are rightly exposed. They were victims of Hitler and Stalin alike during the Second World War, they only liberated themselves in 1990, and are increasingly denied the right to exist in Moscow. They are both EU and NATO members. Time and again, it is said that NATO will protect “every square centimeter” of its territory. Every square centimeter? For Estonia’s airspace, this is only partially true. And Estonia’s territory?

The NATO fighting federation in Estonia, with 1,700 soldiers, is smaller than the police line-up at a football cup final in Germany. The declared goal of the mainly British troop deployment in Estonia, such as the German government in Lithuania, is only that Russian invaders would have to pass Nato positions when invading, which would be associated with a certain risk. But the more often Russia is allowed to test NATO with impunity, the lower this risk becomes from a Moscow point of view. And the greater the danger of war.